


dancin' in the dark (in the pale moonlight)

by thesurielofficial



Series: ATLA wlw week [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA WLW Week 2020, Angst, F/F, Period-Typical Homophobia, mom said it's my turn to project onto sapphic characters who've never met
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26626135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesurielofficial/pseuds/thesurielofficial
Summary: When Suki is 14, she falls in love with a girl with moon-coloured hair. They both know it can't last. But who said first love is ever easy?(takes place before the events of ATLA, and Sokka/Yue does not happen in this AU)Written for day 4 of ATLA wlw week: Angst
Relationships: Suki/Yue (Avatar)
Series: ATLA wlw week [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931743
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23
Collections: AtLA WLW week 2020





	dancin' in the dark (in the pale moonlight)

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: The North Pole would probably be very homophobic, and this is referred to.
> 
> Title from Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Ray.

When Suki was 14, she had visited the North Pole. 

When Suki was 14, she had fallen in love for the first time.

It starts as any great romantic story starts- with an act of heroism. The Kyoshi Warriors fought off Fire Nation soldiers. Four of them had been travelling the world and recruiting people, and they’d been ambushed. The fight left Suki with second degree burns, and the other three warriors rushed her to the Northern Water Tribe because it had the best healers.

Suki had been drowsy from the anaesthetic medicine her fellow warriors had administered to her. When the Princess of the Tribe came to visit the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, the only thought running through Suki’s head was that the girl was beautiful. When Yue saw the warrior lying in bed, she thought the girl must have been so brave to have fought off a large group of Fire Nation soldiers. They hadn’t spoken that day, nor did they speak for the next two days. But on the fourth day, when Suki was ready to leave, Yue asked her father to let them stay a week. 

There were multiple reasons for this decision.

Yue was a healer, not a fighter. But most importantly, she was a princess and she was to be wed some day. The women in the North Pole do not fight. But Yue had to fight for her life when she was born. Besides, she isn’t like the rest of the waterbenders. She has the spirit of the moon inside of her. She’s more powerful than the others know, but she isn’t allowed to use the power.

So when she sees this brave warrior, one who is feminine and strong at the same time, she knows that she must befriend the girl. And perhaps, she could ask Suki to teach her to fight. Suki is honoured to do so, and they train in secret every night. 

Suki cannot bend, while Yue is an exceptionally strong waterbender. But Suki knows her history, and she knows how Avatar Kyoshi used her fans to control her bending. She shows Yue the basics of hand-to-hand. She teaches Yue the art of tessenjutsu and she teaches her the history of Avatar Kyoshi. Yue picks it up faster than most warriors do, and she figures out how to incorporate fans into bending despite not having a waterbender to teach her. 

Suki’s always been in love with people who can kick ass. Yue had never thought of girls romantically, but when Suki kisses her, she thinks that Suki’s lips are soft, and she likes it so she kisses back.

When Suki was 14, she kissed a beautiful, powerful girl who the world saw as nothing more than a princess. When Yue was 14, she kissed her first love, even as she knew that they could never last.

Both girls pull away smiling until they realise what has just happened, or rather, what will happen. The North Pole does not take kindly to women who fight, and had only housed Suki out of respect for the Avatar and Kyoshi’s legacy. By learning to fight, Yue has committed a high act of treason. By teaching her, Suki has betrayed her hosts. And the idea of girls loving girls is not one that is common in the North Pole, where arranged marriages between a man and a woman are the norm.

“I’ll have to leave in two days,” Suki says.

“It’ll be easier,” Yue replies. She doesn’t say she will miss Suki, they both know she will. Neither of them try to placate the other, they both know that stories like theirs don’t have happy endings. “My parents are looking for a suitor for me.”

“I wish you could come away with me,” Suki says wistfully. 

“Don’t go forgetting me, okay?” Yue says, trying to smile but the enormity of what she has done, of what they have been doing hits her and she realises she’s crying. Suki holds the princess through the night and Yue holds her back.

Two days later, Yue kisses Suki goodbye. A week after that, Suki is up till 2 a.m. every night, thinking of that final soft, sweet kiss that still ghosts her lips. 

The sad thing about love stories like theirs is not even the fact that they end. It is the fact that they never get to begin. These stories don’t just get forgotten, they get intentionally erased. Suki vows never to forget Yue. She vows to go back and meet her when they’re older, and maybe they could at least get the chance to be friends. 

A year later, she realises that she will never get that chance.

**Author's Note:**

> Suki and Yue? Never thought I'd ship them. It took one (1) Tumblr post to make me think of AUs in which they meet and fall in love. Here's my angsty take on it. No, I did not project onto any of this. (I totally did)
> 
> My Tumblr. Feel free to talk to me about Yueki, I've been thinking about them a lot recently. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!!


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